


Forward to the Past

by matrixrefugee



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-19 04:59:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17595071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee/pseuds/matrixrefugee
Summary: A ripple in the Rift throws Gwen forward into the future, where she meets her boss during his Time Agent days.





	Forward to the Past

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](https://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/profile)[fic_promptly](https://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/)'s [Doctor Who/Torchwood, Gwen and Jack, Gwen gets thrown forward in time and meets Time Agent Jack.](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/142494.html?thread=6591902&format=light#cmt6591902) Okay, I admit it, the title riffs on "Back to the Future". I couldn't resist.

_"Just remember, with these mini-rifts that keep opening up, any step could be the wrong step,"_ Jack's voice said over Gwen's earpiece.

Gwen shook her head patiently as she quick-walked along a side street off a side street. "And how are we to know which step is the wrong step?"

 _"Should be pretty obvious: the landscape'll change, maybe dramatically,"_ Jack's voice said. _"You sit tight, Gwen, I'm coming up on your position. You'll see me coming from your five-o'clock position."_

Gwen turned, looking for the outlet of an alleyway behind her, just as a tall figure in a long blue-grey coat hurried out to join her...

...And the architecture around her changed, the brick buildings with sharp angled lines turning into buildings with curving lines, made of stone of a kind she had never seen before. Even still, a familiar tall, dark and handsome figure in a long blue-grey coat approached her.

Gwen hurried to meet him, nearly colliding with him; Jack put a hand out to steady her under one arm, then put the other behind her back, a little familiar, but Jack got familiar from time to time. "Whoa, there, you sure are happy to see me," he quipped.

"Jack, thank God: I think we fell into one of those mini-rifts," she said, breathing .

And then she got a better look at Jack's face: the laugh lines about his mouth and eyes less pronounced, his skin a tad less tanned and his form a bit slimmer.

This Jack raised an eyebrow. "Mini-rifts? rips in the fabric of time? I'm more accustomed to rips in the fabric of *other* things, but I'm game," he said, with a slightly more manic version of that cheeky grin he gave when he cracked an especially naughty quip. "Must be your first case."

"First case?" she asked, trying not to look or sound indignant: she had found a different, younger Jack after all, and he wouldn't know about her situation.

"You're with the Time Agency, am I right? Bit green, but everyone's green their first case," younger!Jack said.

"It's my first time... going to the future, or the past. Um, I'm a bit twisted up," she said, looking around.

He took her wrists into his hands, turning them over gently. "Well, I can see why: You don't have your vortex manipulator," he noted. He found her eyes with his. "You're easy on the eyes, but you're not Time Agency, are you," he said. No judgement, just a simple stating of the facts.

"No, I'm with something a bit more ...clandestine," she said. She bit her tongue, to keep herself from mentioning Torchwood. Mentioning the name might set this Jack on the wrong path: the Jack she knew had talked about paradoxes and the dangers those could set off.

"And you'd tell me more, but you'd have to kill me. Think I'd much rather keep my head on my shoulders: wouldn't do anything for my looks, and I'm rather attached to this head," he said, reaching up to pat the top of his own head.

"Yeah, I'd... better try and find my way back," she said, letting him go.

"Aw, leaving so soon? And we only just met," he said, with a brief sad little frown of disappointment, his pale eyes snapping with mischief. "Captain Jack Harkness, at your service."

"I'm ...Gwyneth," she said.

"Pleasure to meet you, Gwyneth," he said. "And if you need a lift getting back, I'm happy to be of assistance," he added, pushing up his sleeve, uncovering the wrist strap device on his left wrist. "Time vortex manipulator: don't leave yer place in the space-time continuum without it."

"I'd be daft not to accept a lift," Gwen said.

"You sure?" He leaned in closer, his grin turning dangerous, though his eyes remained cheery. "Some people say I'm a dangerous criminal."

"If you were, you're not very convincing," Gwen replied, smirking. As much of a beat-down as Jack could put on someone, she doubted he would harm her unless he had reason to.

"Awww! I must be slipping," he said, offering the crook of his elbow to her. "So, Gwyneth of the mystery organization, when to?" he asked, opening the flap on the vortex manipulator.

"Cardiff, Wales, um, twenty-eighth of March, two thousand and eight," she said, taking his arm.

"We're not far from there, it's the year twenty-five twelve," Jack said, hitting a few buttons. "Should have you home for dinner. Hang on tight."

Everything went bright and something snapped around her. When the light cleared, she stood on a street corner, about half a block from where she had vanished.

 _"Gwen? You all right? You blinked out of existence. Got me worried here,"_ the older Jack's voice crackled over Gwen's earpiece.

She touched the earpiece. "I'm not far from your position," she said. "I'm not alone."

 _"Got a stowaway?"_ her Jack asked.

"Yer boss chewing you out?" the Jack at her side asked.

"No, he's worried for me," she said, holding up a finger for quiet.

 _"Oooh, I hear a manly voice with you. Rhys know you got there?"_ her Jack asked.

"Where are you? I'll try and meet you," she said.

"Care for an escort? Wouldn't want you to be lonely along the way," the Jack at her side offered.

"Thanks, but I think that I can manage," she said.

 _"I'm where you vanished: won't budge an inch,"_ her Jack replied. _"And bring your passenger: he sounds friendly."_

"Um, there's the *paradox*," she said into the earpiece. "He gave me a lift home on his *vortex manipulator."

A moment of silence from the Jack on the earpiece. _"Aha... yeah, that could be a problem,"_ he said, figuring it out.

"Oooh, he wants to keep you to himself," the Jack at her side said. "Well, this is where I take my leave," he said. He leaned in and kissed her on the mouth. "Pleasure to meet you, Gwyneth," he said, then keying his vortex manipulator and blinking out of sight. Gwen shook her head to clear it after that encounter and hurried to meet her Jack...


End file.
